By Cheryl Rushing

I’ve been reading the The Renegade Writer blog off and on for a while now.  Linda Formicelli posts things there that usually hit a topic I want to find out more about.

The past few months she has been offering a series of free teleclasses, and alas! I have signed up for many of them and something always seems to come up.  Sometimes it’s an emergency and sometimes it’s ennui.

The teleclass offered this past Tuesday was on freelance writing success, and I was really interested in it, but unable to attend the class.   I was sick and chose sleeping over attending a class I likely wouldn’t be able to comprehend anyway.

Luckily, Linda records the classes and puts them on her website.  I downloaded this one, and on Friday night when I got home from work I hooked up the wireless headset to the computer and listened to the class while I swept and mopped my house.

I am so glad I listened.  This short teleclass was chock full of really great information, and the question and answer session was even more helpful.  I finished the class feeling positive and excited.  Now that’s a good class.

Check out The Renegade Writer.

Image by Tony₂ via Flickr

I’m having one of those days where I need to remember that writing is the ultimate goal.  Here’s my to-do list for the weekend (thank heavens for rainy weekends):

1.  Create writing resume.

2.  Update writing samples page.

3.  Do SEO articles currently scheduled.

4.  Review freelance jobs sites and apply for at least 4 jobs, if not more.

5.  Work a bit on the novel.

6.  Put together a daily writing schedule.

Tropical storms make for great writing weather.  Should be a good weekend.

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Over the past couple of years I’ve been trying to focus more on writing of the paid variety.  I like to write, and I like money, and I’ve heard there are people who are able to marry those two concepts.  I’d like to be one of those people.

My problem is, I’ve been going about it the wrong way.  I started out by searching for blogs about “freelance writing” and then subscribing to them.  ALL of them.  Then I started subscribing to those job posting sites for writers.  ALL of them.

I had come to the point where my RSS readerwas over 2,000 unread items, almost all of it freelance-writing-related, and I began to feel equal parts guilty and overwhelmed.  I unsubscribed from about half of them, but just the ones I was consistently skipping over.

Then I found a few freelance sites that offer classes and ebooks, and I started buying ebooks (the classes always seem too expensive).  Those ebooks are mostly unread.

Then I started reading those freelance blogs I was still subscribed to, and this is what I read:

• Freelance writing is so easy, anyone can do it.
• Freelance writing is not for the faint of heart.
• With a little hard work and some pluck, you can have a successful freelance writing career.
• If you don’t already have a two-page writing resume and a degree in marketing, you will never make it in this business.
• You have to pay your dues to be a true freelancer.
• Forget about “paying your dues” – get paid for your work!
• There are plenty of great writing jobs out there.
• All the great jobs are taken, and print work is dead.

And so on, and so on.  There are some freelance sites that want to teach you to be a freelancer (for a fee, for a course, for a book), and there are sites that want to discourage you from it (to reduce competition?).

I got caught in the trap of thinking I needed every resource, and then getting overwhelmed by the number of resources out there. 

The bottom line is: I want to write, I want to freelance, and I want to make money at it.  I’m smart, I think I’m talented, and the opportunities aren’t going to come to me.

I think I have managed to cobble together enough good and positive information that, when added to my desire to succeed, I can probably get somewhere.  The journey begins here and now.

I’ve been mulling this over for a while, and I decided that I might try it and see how I like it.   Probably the most important advice I’ve ever read but can’t remember the source of is “If you want to be a writer, write.”

So I shall write.  I think I write much more and more often than I realize, so here is where I am going to try to start keeping track.

Today, January 12, 2010, I wrote the following:

1.  Website copy for my local Mensa chapter.

2.  A blog post for my personal blog.

3.  A paid blog post/SEO.

4.  Another paid blog post/SEO.

The plan is, if I wrote it and I can link to it, I will.  This helps me keep track of my productivity, and might provide some work samples for prospective clients.

Today I received a copy of the 2010 Writer’s Market Deluxe (the one that includes one year of access to writersmarket.com), and the plan is to start scouting the magazine markets for a series of articles I would like to write about a certain topic.  I’ve got some great ideas for the series, and I am going to start writing those this weekend, if not sooner.

I also have a couple of novels in the works, though those are just for play at this point.  I will probably do a little work on “JT” tonight.  That’s the one foremost in my brain lately.

I hope that you have a productive week.  That’s my plan.

Image by churl via Flickr

When my favorite writers group splintered last year, I went looking for a new group.  A new one had been created from my old one, but it met too far away.

The same state association also created another group that meets in my area, but it didn’t have the same feel for me as the first one.  I then tried a different association, but it was also far away.

Most of these associations focused on book authors, something I do not believe that I am.  I have books in various stages of work, but nothing complete and I don’t know if that will ever happen to me.

I met with my friend and mentor, Lisa Wroble, last year, and she told me that she was a part of the Florida Freelance Writers Association.  I had never heard of it, but she told me about the group, and I thought it was worth looking into.

The group doesn’t have any meetings, but they have a ton of resources.  I joined online and got a (non-canned) confirmation e-mail and then a big packet of paperwork in the mail that included press credentials (!!) and the last 4 issues of the national and state association newsletters.

I decided not to renew my memberships to the other two state associations, which paid for this membership.  Already I’m impressed by what I’ve learned from the newsletters, and the amount of resources they provide.  I’ve only had the new packet less than a week.

I highly recommend Florida Freelance Writers Association.  If you decide to join, please let them know Cheryl Rushing referred you!

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I’ve spent a lot of time the past several years thinking that, as a writer, I had to write a book.  So I’ve started books.  Many of them.  I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo and failed miserably. 

All I’ve gotten for my trouble has been a large pile of half-finished manuscripts (ok, perhaps a jump drive full of them) and a lot of frustration.  When I’ve explored the publishing process, it just seems overwhelming.

I’ve watched friends and fellow writers get published.  Lauren Conrad has been published, for Pete’s sake!

And all the while, I’ve just been paralyzed by fear.

A couple of years ago I took a class about writing, and I got interested in magazine writing.  It seemed to be a bit easier than novel writing, plus I could probably finish a magazine article, right?

Thanks to a friend who is mentoring me, I’ve got an idea on how to get my foot in the door with magazine writing.  I’ve been compiling a list of articles I’d like to write, and I’ll be looking for places to get them published in the next month or so.

Write what you know… so I am!

This past weekend I had some inspiration on a novel I had started writing this past spring.  I wrote on that for a bit, then noticed in the same folder some documents from a novel I had started in 2008.

I spent Sunday morning reading what I had written in 2008, and falling in love with the characters and the story all over again.  I’ve got some ideas for that, and I’m looking forward to putting it all together.

I might just end up writing a book someday after all.